My journey through photography

Indigo Cone-headed duck

Experienced birders know that this is not an Indigo Cone-headed duck. In fact, there is no such bird—I simply made up the name because I was not really satisfied with calling this bird a Ring-necked duck (Aythya collaris). It is definitely a cool-looking bird, but where is the ring around its neck?

“This bird’s common name (and its scientific name “collaris,” too) refer to the Ring-necked Duck’s hard-to-see chestnut collar on its black neck. It’s not a good field mark to use for identifying the bird, but it jumped out to the nineteenth century biologists that described the species using dead specimens.”

I’m in favor of having practical names that are descriptive of live specimens that I might encounter. If Indigo Cone-headed duck doesn’t work for you, how about Ring-billed duck? I’d enjoying hearing any creative ideas you might have about renaming this handsome little duck.

I like the bird and I like your photo of the bird, but I’m conflicted by publishing unofficial names for the wildlife we like to photograph. I realize we blog from different perspectives — your narratives are more literary and mine are more about informal science education, or at least that’s one of my goals. From my perspective, I know how difficult it is to unlearn misinformation. My concern is some of your names are so clever they may be more likely to stick in the readers’ heads than the real names. Knowing you as well as I think I do, my guess is you’re going to go your own way (think Fleetwood Mac) and that’s cool. Just thought I’d share my thoughts. Rest assured, no offense intended and hopefully none taken.

No offense taken. I figure that as long as I include the “real” name and make it explicit that I have made up my own name, there is no harm and potentially real benefit. I think my name might make a person look more closely at the distinguishing characteristics of a species, which ideally should help you remember its name. Learning species by rote memorization is ok for some, but I think it is more effective when there the name of the species includes something that is observable in the field, which is definitely not the case with the ring on the neck of this duck.